Nickg415 wrote:First Acceptance of the Year!!! Way stoked I had my last update on the 26th and was worried because everyone else with that update had already received their letters. I am definitely the lowest GPA Splitter: 170/3.2

Received and accepted the interview invitation last Tuesday and heard no response from them yet. I applied for ED and it feels like I just wasted one full week and keep thinking that if I did not accept their interview invitation, I should have their decision by now...Is it too early to send them an e-mail about this after one week?

Nickg415 wrote:First Acceptance of the Year!!! Way stoked I had my last update on the 26th and was worried because everyone else with that update had already received their letters. I am definitely the lowest GPA Splitter: 170/3.2

Congrats, Other Nick! Nothing in the mail to day, so you may be the Highlander.

I found this last semester and I know is specifically pertains to waitlists I thought it might be beneficial:

ub3rm3nsch wrote:As someone who got in late off the waiting list this year, and knowing how much stress it is -- especially if, like me, you both want to go to school in D.C., and want to make sure you get into at least a t14 school -- I just wanted to post this for next year's applicants.

By this page of the waiting list thread, you've probably familiarized yourself with how a waiting list works (or maybe not if, like me, you started at the last page of the thread and are reading backwards to see when the final person was admitted). If you're not familiar with Law School Waiting Lists, just Google "Law School Waiting Lists". It's basically a way for law schools to ensure they fill their classes. Law schools will generally admit more applicants than there are spaces (so if there are 500 spaces, they will admit say, 1,500 applicants). Many of these applicants will choose to go to other schools. If too many of them choose to go, that's where the waiting list (and hopefully you) come into play.

Georgetown's waiting list process is quite complex, which is why I made this post. So take a deep breath, and keep reading.

Georgetown University Law Center Waiting List Basics:

If you get an e-mail saying you're on the waiting list, DON'T PANIC. The first step is to check which waiting list you are on. My first impulse upon getting my waiting list e-mail from Georgetown was to e-mail them back and immediately withdraw. That would teach them!! I mean, how dare they not accept muah?? Luckily, I did NOT do this, and neither should you. There is hope!

So, which waiting list are you on? Although Georgetown says they don't prioritize their waiting lists, it looks like they do.(disclaimer: this is me speaking from an unofficial capacity as someone who was admitted off of the waiting list, and who followed these boards closely. I have no actual inside knowledge of Georgetown's waiting list process)

The waiting list ranking seems to be as follows:

-Regular Waiting ListThis seems to be the bottom of the pecking order. I think the chances of getting admitted here are pretty slim, unless you have really amazing numbers and applied really late, have amazing connections at Georgetown, or just get lucky. Someone mentioned that a lot of schools run this list for political reasons. They might not want to immediately DING someone whose dad/mom/etc.. is a big donor to the school. So they drop him/her here until they can figure out what to do with his/her application.

-Preferred Waiting ListThis is the list of students that Georgetown is actually giving serious consideration to, should a spot open up. It does happen. Again, DON'T PANIC.

-"Special Group within the Preferred Waiting List"This is an unofficial category, but it is significant. People who are told in their e-mail that they have been placed into a "Special Group within the Preferred Waiting List" at Georgetown University Law Center (spelled out everything for you Google searchers) have the best chance of getting admitted. There are basically three types of people on this list:

i)Yield Protect - people whose LSAT scores and GPAs are much higher than Georgetown University's medians. Georgetown puts them here to keep enough spots open should the likely possibility occur that these people will choose higher ranked schools

ii)Late Applicants - people who have numbers good enough to get into Georgetown, but just ended up applying late when the class was already basically full.

iii)Borderline Applicants - this is for people like me. Well, actually I also applied late, but my numbers were just at or just below Georgetown's medians. I did, however, have great softs (in my own opinion of course).

In this forum, if you go back through the postings for our cycle (which is what I did during my cycle - checked the postings of all the previous cycles), you can see that almost everyone from the Special Group Within the Preferred Waiting List (SPWL) and a lot of people from the Preferred Waiting List (PWL) ended up being admitted. I myself wasn't admitted until mid-July, and I was on the SPWL.

This is basically a letter expressing your interest in remaining on the waiting list. A lot of people, including myself, also turned this into a sort of "Why Georgetown?" exercise, but I can't really speak to the effectiveness of doing so. If you need more details, just Google something like "Law School LOCI".

Step 2)Wait.

I know, I know, it sucks. You are on Google reading articles which say t14 or bust (which is a very much flawed piece of advice, by the way; if you are studying Intellectual Property Law or Patent Law, you will probably be making money no matter where you go). This might be your only chance to crack the t14. Or, like me, you really, really want to get into a school in D.C. which has enough name recognition to get you in the door at that dream NGO. But really, there's nothing much you can do. The admissions committee at Georgetown is really great. They do the best job among the t14 schools, in my opinion, about updating the applicants regarding the waiting list process (more on this later).

If you want, while you're waiting, you can send additional LOCIs. I did. But there seem to be mixed opinions about doing this. Some of the applicants in previous cycles had success just sending one line e-mails like "I'll accept a spot on the waiting list if admitted." I took the opposite approach and literally bombarded the Admission's Office with periodic LOCIs. They ranged from talking about Why I specifically chose Georgetown, to my future goals, to my life experiences and blah, blah, blah. I think the LOCI which was the most effective though was the one in which I reiterated my LSAT and GPA scores, which were within Georgetown's medians. It was after that LOCI in late July that I was finally admitted, and I was probably the last person remaining on the SPWL at that point who hadn't either withdrawn or been accepted.

My advice though - go drink beer with your friends. Have fun. Enjoy your spring. If you want, check periodically on this board for updates, but don't stress yourself out. This board is not composed of members of Georgetown University's Admissions Committee (no matter how much you would like it to be). It's composed of a bunch of people speculating on probabilities.

Notice how there are only two steps? That's not a mistake.

Now, what to expect.

Like I said, Georgetown does a pretty good job of giving continuous updates about their waiting list situation. They will even give you specific dates by which to expect further updates. These updates about the waiting list are helpful, because they also contain clues about how seriously your application is being considered. There are basically two to three types of e-mails.

Type 1 - Dean Cornblatt:These e-mails are usually just general updates about the waiting list process. Sometimes they say things like "spaces may become available.... we will check by such and such date". I hate to be pessimistic at this point, but don't read too much into this. Really the point of the e-mail is to basically say "We have not decided to admit you yet, but spaces might be available by the next review date of such and such date." If you're still getting these, that's a good sign. You're still in the running, but you are in the running against every other candidate on the waiting list, so don't get your hopes up too high. Just keep waiting.

Type 1.5 - Dean Cornblatt w/ more hopeful indicators:These e-mails are basically the same as the general ones, but sometimes they contain more specific language like "You continue to be part of a small, select group to which we will turn". Sometimes, these general e-mails will ask you to reiterate interest. If you are getting these e-mails, you are definitely still in the running. Don't lose hope. Like I said, I was admitted mid-July.

Type 2 - Director of Admissions:These e-mails are usually personally written to you. They ask you to indicate your level of interest in Georgetown (These are NOT the same as the Dean Corblatt e-mails asking you to reiterate interest; again, these are PERSONALLY addressed to only you). Usually (notice the italics), these are a really good sign, particularly as you get later into the cycle. I would guess that almost everyone who got these personal e-mails and responded that they were indeed still interested were subsequently admitted in the short-term future. This is what happened to me.

Finally, the e-mail that basically lets you know that you are definitely in is the Andy Cornblatt e-mail which basically says "I can't tell you you've been admitted, but you will be able to access the admitted student's website now (wink, wink)." If you got this, you are 100% in.

A few final notes:

-Make sure to make plans at the schools you've already been accepted to. Don't count on getting lucky. Apply for financial aid, arrange your housing, enjoy your spring and summer, and don't do what I did and make yourself crazy by checking this board every day. The Admissions Office at Georgetown has your file. They didn't lose it. If you want, you can send them a "Hey, remember that my scores are better than some people you've been recently admitting?" e-mail.

-It helps to compare scores if you all post them on your profiles. That's why I've kept mine up.

-Again, don't stress.

-This is not an official analysis of Georgetown's Waiting List process. This is just how it seems to have happened in the last 3 years or so. Every cycle is always a little bit different.

Well, that's all I can think of. If anyone in any future cycles has any other questions about this stressful process, feel free to send me a PM, although I can't say for certain I will be a regular user of this website in the future. Good luck, and remember, you'll do great no matter which school you get into! It's not the school, it's the person attending the school!

kappycaft1 wrote:Just wondering, but what exactly do the interviews with GULC mean in terms of the University's interest in an applicant? As opposed to schools like NU and Vandy that conduct interviews as part of the initial process with everyone who signs up for them, I assume that GULC's interviews are by invite only... accordingly, does receiving an invite mean that a borderline candidate has a somewhat decent chance of being admitted, or are the interviews just a gesture of feigned cordiality and don't really mean anything?

I dunno if anyone has the answer to this, but I'm curious too. Just had my alumni interview tonight, and am becoming increasingly neurotic about the possibilities. I have to believe its more than a mere formality or pity interview, right? My speculative guess is an interview request can be given to presumptive rejects who are given one last shot to hook the adcoms, or for marginally overqualified applicants who may or may not be super-interested in GULC, and everyone in between? So pretty much everyone around the accept/reject borderline?

I had an interview and from what I can tell the interview is just to help them get a better idea of the applicant. My acceptance letter had a hand written note (all do I think) that specifically noted that my interviewer had positive things to say about me. This could only help tip the scale in my favor. Would they have rejected me if my interviewer gave a neutral review of me? Hard to say. They probably would have rejected me if the interviewer told them that he didn't think that I was a good fit for the school. In the end as long as you didn't bomb the interview I cant see it doing anything but good.

Just received my acceptance letter! Last update was 11/26, which is when it was postmarked... Also, I live in the Northeast, so I did not think it could take this long to get here, but it finally has! My GPA is quite high and LSAT is slightly below the median.

I'm wondering if anyone was invited for an interview? I applied on Sept 20 but then I retook the LSAT in October. I got an email on November 6 asking me if I would be interested in interviewing with an alumni in my area. The invitation was "based on the strength of my application." I had the interview on Nov 13 and then got an email on Nov 29 saying they have chosen to "postpone" my decision. But they said I would have a final decision by Feb 28.

I was thinking this may be a sign that the interview went well. My GPA is very high, much higher than the 75th percentile, but my LSAT is a few points below the 25th percentile. So I'm probably on the fence for them, and I assume the interview was to help them decide whether to reject me or wait list me.

Does anyone have any idea what this means in terms of outlook for me? DOes anyone know anything about Georgetown interviews? Is "postpone" somehow different from "wait list" or "hold?" Do these all mean the same thing?

dpm54 wrote:Hi, I'm new to this forum and this is actually my first post...

I'm wondering if anyone was invited for an interview? I applied on Sept 20 but then I retook the LSAT in October. I got an email on November 6 asking me if I would be interested in interviewing with an alumni in my area. The invitation was "based on the strength of my application." I had the interview on Nov 13 and then got an email on Nov 29 saying they have chosen to "postpone" my decision. But they said I would have a final decision by Feb 28.

I was thinking this may be a sign that the interview went well. My GPA is very high, much higher than the 75th percentile, but my LSAT is a few points below the 25th percentile. So I'm probably on the fence for them, and I assume the interview was to help them decide whether to reject me or wait list me.

Does anyone have any idea what this means in terms of outlook for me? DOes anyone know anything about Georgetown interviews? Is "postpone" somehow different from "wait list" or "hold?" Do these all mean the same thing?

dpm54 wrote:Hi, I'm new to this forum and this is actually my first post...

I'm wondering if anyone was invited for an interview? I applied on Sept 20 but then I retook the LSAT in October. I got an email on November 6 asking me if I would be interested in interviewing with an alumni in my area. The invitation was "based on the strength of my application." I had the interview on Nov 13 and then got an email on Nov 29 saying they have chosen to "postpone" my decision. But they said I would have a final decision by Feb 28.

I was thinking this may be a sign that the interview went well. My GPA is very high, much higher than the 75th percentile, but my LSAT is a few points below the 25th percentile. So I'm probably on the fence for them, and I assume the interview was to help them decide whether to reject me or wait list me.

Does anyone have any idea what this means in terms of outlook for me? DOes anyone know anything about Georgetown interviews? Is "postpone" somehow different from "wait list" or "hold?" Do these all mean the same thing?

looked in previous pages but couldn't find too much. what are the repercussions of not doing the group interview? noticed one person who didn't and still got in. how do they compare to the individual interviews?

Just received an invitation for a group interview with the Dean. I've done group interview before, but I wonder how the process will be different in terms of the application process. Has anyone gone through a group interview that would be willing to share their experience?

I also don't know what this means in terms of my chances. I have a 170/3.92, Masters degree, URM and strong softs...any insight or thoughts?

The overall consensus is that your status never changes, right? did anyone have it change to DLS at some point before they heard? Also, I saw some people saying rejections are through email and some through snail mail. I had my most recent update on 11/29 (submitted at some point in early November - don't remember when), but haven't had another update, nor have I been held. I am worried I might be getting a rejection letter, if they do in fact do that....